🤑 Ripple Partners with Kbank to Deploy Scalable Digital Asset Wallet Infrastructure through Ripple Custody

Ripple announced a strategic partnership with Kbank, Korea’s first internet-only bank, to deploy institutional digital asset wallet infrastructure through Ripple Custody, enabling secure, scalable management of digital assets within a regulated banking environment.

🟠Kbank, Korea's most crypto-native bank and exclusive banking partner to some of the country’s largest digital asset exchanges, is expanding its institutional digital asset capabilities through multi-party computation-based wallet infrastructure designed to securely manage assets across multiple blockchain networks.

Through Ripple Custody’s wallet-as-a-service, Kbank gains bank-grade wallet infrastructure with security controls and scalability built in, enabling the bank to accelerate deployment without the cost, complexity, and operational burden of building and maintaining that infrastructure in-house. 🤝

The partnership is also expected to support Kbank’s broader strategy to expand its digital asset capabilities across custody, wallet operations, and blockchain-based financial services. By leveraging Ripple Custody, Kbank will be able to explore a more efficient model for institutional digital asset operations while maintaining the security and control required by regulated financial institutions. 🛡🔒

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⚡️ Trump threatens to raise tariffs on EU automobiles to 25 percent

President Donald Trump on Friday said he will raise tariffs on automobiles and auto parts from the European Union because the 27-country bloc is not living up to its end of a trade agreement struck last summer.

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 Greer Discusses ‘Board of Trade’ in Call With China’s He Lifeng

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said American officials discussed a possible “Board of Trade” in a call with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, casting it as a tool that could help manage economic ties between the two nations.

Greer and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the call “highlighted the role that a new government-to-government Board of Trade could play in optimizing bilateral trade in non-sensitive goods,” Greer said, adding that they also discussed “the importance of agricultural market access in China for US producers.”

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🤖 Roblox to Challenge Unity, Unreal Engines With New AI Software

Roblox Corp. is launching a new product Roblox Reality that will position its popular video-game creation software to better compete with Unity Software Inc. and Epic Games, whose engines are used by most big-budget game-makers.

“We want to make it easy for creators to create experiences that are multiplayer and photorealistic, and do it easily by powering it with AI,” — Chief Executive Officer Dave Baszucki said.

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🤑 Starting today, Rakuten Wallet users in Japan can convert Rakuten Points into XRP, spot trade in-app, and spend across 5M+ merchant locations.

With 44 million Rakuten Pay users and $23B in loyalty points now redeemable for XRP, this is one of the largest retail deployments of XRP as a payment method to date.

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🇺🇸 Trump Says He Will ‘Probably’ Go to G-7 Summit in France

US President Donald Trump indicated he plans to attend the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in France in June.

“Probably,” — Trump told reporters Friday at the White House when asked if he would join the gathering of representatives from the world’s richest nations.

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🆕 New panels produce hydrogen fuel using only water, sunlight and no electricity

A spin-off from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Photreon, gained significant attraction at the Hannover Messe event, where it highlighted its hydrogen production technology and presented a new photoreactor panel. The project showcased a one-square-meter prototype designed to generate hydrogen using only water and sunlight.

“We avoid the detour through electrically powered electrolysis, producing chemical energy from sunlight and water,” — said photreon co-founder Paul Kant.

This system operates independently of the electrical grid and does not require the electrolyzers typically used in green hydrogen production. By presenting this technology, the team demonstrated a method that could potentially lower the barriers to entry for decentralized hydrogen infrastructure.

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🏛 Meta Acquires Robotics AI Company to Help Build Humanoid Technology

Meta Platforms Inc. has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a startup developing AI models for robots, as part of a major initiative to build humanoid technology.

The social networking giant closed the acquisition Friday. Meta said the startup is “at the frontier of robotic intelligence designed to enable robots to understand, predict and adapt to human behaviors in complex and dynamic environments.”

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⚡️ Reminder: Our next Q&A + Meet & Greet Call is coming up!

Have you already watched the video and prepared your questions? If not, there’s still time — come ready to share, ask, and explore 💬💫

❗️Firstly, you should pass the test and complete the course in → @QSITrainingBot.🔣Then you will get access to the channel. Here you will find a link to Q&A + Meet & Greet Call in Zoom.

🎓 On top of answering any basic questions you may have, there will be our next online study hall session, where we will discuss any lessons or big takeaways you’ve learned from studying the Mini Proofs video #2 on BRICS.

Don’t be shy or afraid. Be active, get involved, and make the most of it! ✨

🔘 Saturday, May 2 @ 9pm CDT / 4am CET / 6am GST / 12pm noon AEST 🌐

See you soon — we’re looking forward to meeting all of you! 💙

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🇨🇳 Chinese Court Rules Firms Can’t Lay Off Workers on AI Grounds

A Chinese court ruled that companies cannot terminate employees just to replace them with AI systems, as authorities juggle the need to stabilize the domestic labor market with a global race to develop AI technologies.

The court decided that a tech firm in eastern China had illegally fired one of its workers after he refused to take a demotion when his job was automated by AI, according to a statement published by the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court.

#BRICS

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🇺🇦🇸🇰 Zelenskiy, Slovak PM Fico Keep Dialogue Open Despite Energy Rift

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico agreed to continue high-level contacts despite ongoing differences over Russian energy supplies. Following a phone call on Saturday, Fico said the leaders share an interest in maintaining “good and friendly relations” between their nations. 🤝

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🛢 OPEC+ set for another oil output quota hike despite Hormuz closure

Seven OPEC+ countries have an agreement in principle to raise ​oil output targets by about 188,000 barrels per day in June, the third consecutive monthly increase, pressing ​on with plans despite the war and the departure of the United Arab Emirates from ⁠the group this week.

The seven members meeting on Sunday ​are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Oman. With the UAE leaving, OPEC+ includes 21 members including Iran, ​but in recent years only the seven nations plus the UAE have been involved in monthly production decisions.

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🇧🇷 Brazil's central bank bans stablecoin and crypto settlement in cross-border payments

Brazil's central bank has banned electronic foreign exchange (eFX) providers from using stablecoins, bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to settle overseas remittances.

📄 BCB Resolution No. 561, published April 30, updates rules for eFX, Brazil's regulated system for digital international payments, purchases, withdrawals and transfers. The rule takes effect October 1, with adaptation deadlines running into 2027.

Payments between an eFX provider and its foreign counterparty must move through a foreign exchange transaction or a non-resident real-denominated account in Brazil, with cryptocurrencies barred as an option.

❗️A remittance firm cannot take reais from a customer, convert the funds into USDT, USDC or bitcoin and settle the payment abroad on a blockchain.

The rule does not ban crypto trading. Investors can still buy, sell, hold and transfer cryptocurrency through authorized virtual asset service providers under Resolution BCB No. 521, which took effect February 2. Resolution 561 closes the back-end payment rail used by regulated eFX firms.

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🇪🇺 European Commission says will ‘keep our options open’ over Trump tariff threat

Trump announced on Truth Social that he would increase the tariff on cars and trucks from the current 15 percent in response to the EU “not complying” with the trade deal reached by the two sides last summer at Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland.

In response, a spokesperson for the European Commission said the bloc was implementing the Turnberry deal “in line with standard legislative practice, keeping the U.S. administration fully informed throughout.”

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🇯🇵 Japan’s Takaichi Lays Out Revamped Indo-Pacific Vision in Speech

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivered a landmark speech to convey her vision for deepening her nation’s economic and security ties with the Indo-Pacific, with a view to making the region more resilient in the face of geopolitical challenges.

Speaking in Hanoi after a bilateral summit on Saturday with Vietnam’s General Secretary and President To Lam, Takaichi stressed the importance of strengthening supply chains, maritime security, space development and a reliable communications infrastructure for the exchange of large amounts of data.

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⏳ Only 2 hours left until our Q&A + Meet & Greet Call begins!

Don’t miss your chance to join our next call — this is a great opportunity to learn, engage, and be part of the conversation completely free of charge. 🚀

Be active, get involved, and make the most of this experience! 💫

See you very soon in Zoom! 💙

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🇺🇸 US Navy signs deal with AI firm for training underwater drones to detect mines in Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. Navy just signed a $99.7 million deal with Domino Data Lab, a San Francisco-based startup, to develop AI tech that would allow its undersea minesweepers to learn about new and unseen mines in days instead of months. This new technology is intended for use in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical shipping lanes.

The software will use multiple sensor suites, such as side-scan sonar and visual imaging systems, to monitor various other AI detection models operating in the field. This should allow operators to identify failures and push corrections as it operates, rather than sending information back to a lab and waiting for AI developers to train a new model to handle novel threats.

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🇨🇳 China’s BYD moves exhaust to engine bay to support larger batteries exceeding 100kWh

Chinese EV giant BYD is rethinking plug-in hybrid packaging with its new “Heyuan” platform, introducing a layout that departs from long-established industry norms. At the core of the system is the relocation of the exhaust silencer from the rear underbody to the front engine bay, where it is integrated alongside key powertrain components.

This architectural shift frees up space at the rear of the vehicle, allowing engineers to redesign the chassis and reposition the battery pack closer to the center. The change improves weight distribution while also expanding interior and cargo capacity. In the Denza D9, the new configuration supports significantly larger battery installations than those typically seen in plug-in hybrid MPVs.

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